The Earth’s surface of the lunar south rod is riddle with ancient volcanic crater overcompensate in chicken feed , but how this water first appear on the moon has long been a secret . Now , a team of researcher believe these wintry pockets could be the result of multiple result that rained down ancient water - carry objects .
Due to the alone tilt of the moon , its diametrical region are permanently shadowed and receive no direct sun . Extremely down in the mouth surface temperature have helped to preserve the ice , but it is not well understand how it got to the moon in the first place .
To determine the age of the ice , researchers first aged 20 craters find at the lunar south rod using datum from NASA ’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ( LRO ) , which has been orbit and collecting images of the lunation for the last decade . Older craters showed more signs of wear upon around the border , as well as pockmarks from asteroids or comets that may have impress the Earth’s surface over clip .
“ The ages of these deposits can potentially tell us something about the origin of the ice , which help us understand the author and statistical distribution of water supply in the inside solar system , ” discipline principal source Ariel Deutsch in astatement . “ For exploration purposes , we need to understand the lateral and vertical distributions of these repository to picture out how best to get at them . These distribution acquire with time , so have an idea of the long time is authoritative . ”
Most of the glass was found in craters that shape more than 3 billion long time ago . Because the chalk ca n’t be older than the crater , the scientists say that the ice is at most the same eld . In these older , larger crater , the ice was also patchy due to barrage from asteroids and comets over time . Newer , smoother ice was institute in more recent volcanic crater as well . It ’s believe that this young internal-combustion engine might have made its path to the moon in a different means than the older ice .
And if the ice is , in fact , different ages , then it think of it likely come from two different origin .
But how did it get there ? When the moon was still untested , it was murder by “ comparatively high impingement rates of comet and asteroids ” delivering ice with them , pen the authors in the journalIcarus . It ’s believe that perhaps the older ice find in the ancient volcanic crater likely came from this root , whereas the younger ice may have been bear to the synodic month either by micrometeorites or through interactions with the solar wind .
But the only agency to sleep together for indisputable is to collect samples from the moon for future analysis .
“ When we think about institutionalise humans back to the Moon for long - term geographic expedition , we postulate to know what resource are there that we can enumerate on , and we currently do n’t know , ” said study co - source Jim Head . “ study like this one help us make prediction about where we need to go to answer those questions . ”
TheArtemis programis set to take off in the next five years , convey with it the next piece and first woman to land on the Sun Myung Moon . Perhaps they can throw off some metaphorical light on the mystery .
